Coffee day

“OH! You mean everyday, right?” you might ask. Well yes, except not for me anymore. Everyday is Tea Day, but every other day is “Coffee Day.”

In a society largely unburdened by means for survival, I figure plenty of the things important to us, or creating structure, in our schedule are just plain made up. So here’s how I constructed Coffee Day:

Every other day is Coffee Day.

That means anything from decaf coffee to mugs of espresso and milk! Multiple drinks are allowed, but this continued practice has me typically taking just one sort of latte drink per day.

Now, sometimes I end up skipping coffee day without realizing it, or missing it! But if it’s not coffee day, even brewed coffee has no place in my day.

Everyday is Tea Day.

I can have tea on any end of the caffeine spectrum! But I am responsible for making sure I eat enough to buffer that caf’s recoil. This blueberry oolong I got from Lake Tahoe is no joke. Earl grey is also the monarch of stomach-stoking teas. You need to eat.

If I’m with a friend for a coffee date on Tea Day, I’ll usually get a chai. My family loves tea, so we have a nice little library at home—no need to pay for boiled water when out.

If I break Coffee Day, no worries—the next day is Tea Day.

I hold to this rule strictly, but I actually haven’t had any trouble with it. This is my way of practicing discipline unattached to shame. (See: “no worries.”)

Why would I do this when I love that brew? Read on, caffeinated compadre:

My last school year was definitely the most challenging both academically and personally, and honestly I can’t really put one semester over the other at this point in level of difficulty. But spring semester I definitely took advantage of my enjoyment of delicious espresso drinks, more than I needed to “survive.”

I really don’t use coffee to stay awake, but it does help jumpstart the system, even if just to relax and talk with a friend. But my intake became multiple lattes a day, on long drives to and from LA from the Inland Empire. (We haven’t even talked about how cost-inefficent this is!) Mostly, I just enjoy having one comforting warm beverage a day: just a little time spent on nothing else but a spot of tea or that coffee aroma. I skimped on time spent eating healthy meals to keep working on my computer, and cut major corners on punctuality for class after interning hours.

I also had this silly Ron Swanson-esque standard that brewed coffee didn’t count as coffee. 😂 Not so, when it came to beginning my “coffee day” routine. Honestly I felt it made me better and more decisive as a human to have this sort of quirk. Red flag, fellow believers, red flag. But seriously, I vastly prefer a latte over brewed any day.

I could attribute my pendulum of moods to a variety of assignments, people and what have you, but I decided to experiment with holding back on those strong cups of joe. Thankfully (and surprisingly) I’m still on that track!

I’m hesitant to say hindsight is 20/20, because I’m a real slow learner. Shards of painful things stuck longer than they should by the way I A. wanted to completely heal from them, and B. was/am scared of the unknown and tend to fixate on what I believe to be true of the past. Basically, God used my junior year’s trials to teach me how much responsibility I needed to take over guarding my heart and mind, as in getting enough sleep, being an accountable planner, and upping my intake of scripture and intentional fellowship. Spiritual fitness comes a lot smoother when we’re diligent about our physical health, realizing that it’s as a limitation of our earthly bodies and a treasure from the Father to be well and coherent. I don’t have this down, and I’m learning to accept where I’m definitely a spiritual baby. I’m eager to learn though, and so glad He picks me up where I fall (a lot).

Now, I’d love to say this practice of discipline is also to dull coffee’s strength as an idol, but I really just wanted to manage my daily diet/sanity more regularly. However, this is still a good thing to keep in mind in terms of a few of (or most of) our favorite earthly things.

Sometimes I get this feeling, like a dose of peace even over simple tasks I’d rather not do, like entering things into my planner, getting in touch with people, or going to bed. As I’ve spent more days with Jesus throughout my college life, I’ve discovered this to be a very real, direct gift from Him—the strength that isn’t my own, to complete even the most minute tasks. It’s my job to desire and pray for diligence, and then get to work, trusting that He’s got me, and that whatever does/doesn’t get done isn’t a reflection of my worth, because He creates it with His righteousness.